The Eyes Maybe Useless, But The Heart Is Never Blind
by MarvelGeek
Summary: Robert B. Banner contacted Scarlet Fever at an early age, his neglectful father and frightened mother let it go untreated. It soon turned into Acute Rheumatic Fever which in turn, settled in his eyes, blinding him. Bruce may be blind, but he is still a genius, still the Hulk even though the Hulk can see. If only he had thought to make sure that the team knew he was blind...


Little Robbie B. Banner was four years old when he contracted Scarlet Fever. The Fever struck him no worse than a common cold, the little boy spent a few days in bed but he was fine afterwards. At least he was, until a few weeks after. He had been running and playing outside, his mother watching the boy carefully from the really worried about the boy, he was her youngest child and only boy and he had always been a bit sickly. But her husband, Brian, didn't believe in taking the child to the doctor. He said that it would turn the boy into a weakly, a pansy.

Not going to the doctor hadn't done Robbie any harm yet, so his mother just took it for granted. After all his older sisters, Estella (9), Marie (7) and Carrie (6), had never needed a doctor. She hadn't expected Robbie to be different. Then her world came crashing down when she saw it. Her little boy clutching at his chest, he had sunk down to his knees and was now panting wetly as he struggled to catch his breath. Rebecca Banner had raced out there, scooping her little boy into her arms, wiping the sweat from his brow as he looked at her blearily.

"Mommy, I don't feel very good."

Robbie had wheezed audibly, his breath rattling in his lungs. Rebecca ran her little child inside and laid him down on his bed in the children's room. All of her other girls were sick as well, still trying to get over Scarlet Fever. At least that was what she assumed it was. They looked sicker than Robbie was, when he had the Fever but what else could it be?

Rebecca didn't dare to call a doctor for fear of Brian's anger and beatings. But the moment she woke up and went to check on her four children and only found three breathing. That's when she snapped, cradling the lifeless body of her seven year old daughter in her arms. She called the first doctor she could find and he diagnosed Carrie and Estella with something called German Measles and little Robbie with something called Acute Rheumatic Fever. He also said that German Measles was the reason Marie had died. The doctor prescribed them medications and Rebecca was relieved. They ended up burying Marie in the cemetery, her stone simply reading 'Marie Janet Banner'.

When Brian Banner found the medications he was furious and ended up crushing them on the floor. Then he crushed their mother's head too. Estella and Carrie had snuck out of bed to stare as their father murdered their mother, both feverish children were shaking in sickness and horror.

Brian left that day, leaving the children alone to slowly suffer and die. Carrie succumbed first, Estella and Robbie woke up one morning to find their sister curled into a ball and completely lifeless. Estella made sure that Robbie didn't look at the body. She would sing him to sleep night, Robbie thought she was going to be okay but even though she fought hard, even she succumbed eventually. Leaving little Robbie alone to die all by himself. But Robbie didn't die, he fought and fought, waiting for someone to take him away from his living hell, but no one came.

The neighbors found him a few days later, feverish and sickly. Robbie recovered once they got him to a hospital, but his vision was something else. The Fever had settled in his eyes, Robbie was blind.

-22yearsLater-

Bruce Banner was blind, he knew he was blind and he was used to being so. Yet people usually didn't notice his lack of sight as he never let it effect him. He became a physicist in a sighted person's world, going to a normal school with normal people. He never asked for any special treatment or anything. Then the Accident happened and people stopped seeing his weaknesses, only seeing the Hulk. Bruce bitterly hated the Hulk for many reasons, but he also treasured what memories the Hulk passed onto him. Because the Hulk could do something he couldn't...the Hulk could _see_.

When Bruce received some of the Hulk's memories he saw things again! It made him remember things from his childhood, memories of when he could see and when he knew what colors were. Then he was forced to join the Avengers, he honestly had thought it was a one time thing. But it wasn't, he had thought all the Avengers were interested in was the Hulk. Yet they weren't, they were trying to get to know Robert Bruce Banner and that terrified him. He was used to people wanting the Hulk...not Bruce.

So when it came to his blindness, he thought they knew. How could they not? True, SHIELD had confiscated his cane, something about making sure that it wasn't housing any dangerous weapons.

Even without the cane...it should have been obvious, the way he had plugged in headphones in the lab so JARVIS could read him things, the way his eyes were hazy and never focused on anything, and the way that he would occasionally trip over something if someone moved it.

But he hadn't actually come out and told them, 'Hey guys, I'm blind.' He hadn't thought he needed too, he thought it was clear and obvious, the way that he had gestured to whatever Tony had ordered, for his schwarma meal. He hated wanted to be a bother and ask if thy could give him a Braille menu. It was obvious that they didn't know when one of Fury's agents came to the Tower to bring his cane back.

The agent was a rookie, only about a month or two into his career with SHIELD but he must've had experience with someone who had a visual disability because he walked over loudly, making sure that Bruce heard him before the agent rested his hand on the physicist's shoulder.

"Dr. Banner, I came to give you your seeing eye cane back."

The agent had announced, loudly. Bruce had been sitting on the couch with the rest of the Avengers, they were having 'Movie Night bonding time', something that Steve forced them to do. He was just sitting calmly and listening to the movie, Tony on one side and Steve on the other. Bruce had thought they knew about his blindness so when the agent rested Bruce's folded up cane into his hands, the physicist was actually relieved. The cane provided security and always made him feel safe.

"A seeing eye cane? Why do you need that, Bruce?"

Steve had asked and a befuddled Bruce had answered only seconds later. Not quite hearing the confusion in the super soldier's voice.

"Because I'm blind."

He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, but it clearly wasn't according to the silence that greeted his statement.

"Y-You're what? When? How? For how long?"

That was Tony's voice and he sensed the worry in it. Bruce raised an eyebrow, appalled that this behavior. They really hadn't known?

"Blind, Tony. I went blind when I was four years old. Scarlet fever, well it actually wasn't the Scarlet Fever that did in my eyesight, it was the Acute Rheumatic Fever that resulted from it being untreated."


End file.
